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Seasonal changes in diet and chemical defense in the Climbing Mantella frog (Mantella laevigata).
- Source :
-
PloS one [PLoS One] 2018 Dec 26; Vol. 13 (12), pp. e0207940. Date of Electronic Publication: 2018 Dec 26 (Print Publication: 2018). - Publication Year :
- 2018
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Abstract
- Poison frogs acquire chemical defenses from the environment for protection against potential predators. These defensive chemicals are lipophilic alkaloids that are sequestered by poison frogs from dietary arthropods and stored in skin glands. Despite decades of research focusing on identifying poison frog alkaloids, we know relatively little about how environmental variation and subsequent arthropod availability impacts alkaloid loads in poison frogs. We investigated how seasonal environmental variation influences poison frog chemical profiles through changes in the diet of the Climbing Mantella (Mantella laevigata). We collected M. laevigata females on the Nosy Mangabe island reserve in Madagascar during the wet and dry seasons and tested the hypothesis that seasonal differences in rainfall is associated with changes in diet composition and skin alkaloid profiles of M. laevigata. The arthropod diet of each frog was characterized into five groups (i.e. ants, termites, mites, insect larvae, or 'other') using visual identification and cytochrome oxidase 1 DNA barcoding. We found that frog diet differed between the wet and dry seasons, where frogs had a more diverse diet in the wet season and consumed a higher percentage of ants in the dry season. To determine if seasonality was associated with variation in frog defensive chemical composition, we used gas chromatography / mass spectrometry to quantify alkaloids from individual skin samples. Although the assortment of identified alkaloids was similar across seasons, we detected significant differences in the abundance of certain alkaloids, which we hypothesize reflects seasonal variation in the diet of M. laevigata. We suggest that these variations could originate from seasonal changes in either arthropod leaf litter composition or changes in frog behavioral patterns. Although additional studies are needed to understand the consequences of long-term environmental shifts, this work suggests that alkaloid profiles are relatively robust against short-term environmental perturbations.<br />Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
- Subjects :
- Alkaloids metabolism
Animals
Arthropods
Female
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
Humidity
Madagascar
Poisons metabolism
Predatory Behavior physiology
Seasons
Skin chemistry
Skin metabolism
Temperature
Alkaloids analysis
Animals, Poisonous physiology
Anura physiology
Feeding Behavior physiology
Poisons analysis
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1932-6203
- Volume :
- 13
- Issue :
- 12
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- PloS one
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 30586404
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207940